Craig Moreau, “Facebook Psalms”

Author: Poetry Editor

June 2, 2011

This week, two poems from Craig Moreau’s Chelsea Boy–out this week on Chelsea Station Editions.

FACEBOOK PSALMS
—for Peter

You are the anti
Buddha, an archive
of the self. Death is not
a fact but a problem. The end is
near is no longer applicable
because the end was a </tag>
and a <tag/> was the beginning.
The proof is in the pictures, the good news
is in the feed:

Craig is this. Craig is that. Craig is whatever follows the article.
Craig is interpreting his self through language and words. Craig
is defining his actions through verbs. Craig is alive. Craig is at a
notable place with four other notable people. Craig is important.
Craig is not important. Craig does not care. Craig cares intensely.
Craig is using letters to make words to make sentences to make
sense of Craig. Craig has only 420 characters to achieve this.
Craig likes that you like his interpretation of what the current
state of Craig is. Craig is alive. Craig is dead. Craig is online.

WATCHING BRAVO, OR, LOOKING AT A POP-CAN TAB

I can bend you at your bridge
*******so you collapse and crumple,
off breaks your arch
*******and you are made in two.

When broken, your arc is sharp enough
*******to shred thumbs—
make them bleed.
*******You have no blood.

But you’ve already been broken
*******away from some can, a mother
you opened up for,
*******and once consumed, lost purpose

unless placed in an empty jar
*******with other orphans
to be melted down and sold.
*******You are recyclable.

You scratch easily and let anything
*******scrape your shine away
so gray streaks fall down your body
*******and make you slender.

You feel good sliding
*******across my tongue.
But flipped over and you drag
*******against my buds.

I can taste your engineering.
*******You’re a simple lever to physics.
A key to drunks. When you fall
*******you give a short dance

then lie inanimate.

——

CRAIG MOREAU received his MFA from New York University and attended University of Iowa for his undergraduate studies. He lives in New York City and recently was a teaching-fellow for NYU’s Veterans Workshop. Chelsea Boy is his first book of poetry. Visit him at www.chelseaboynyc.com and on twitter @chelseaboynyc.